How Choose a topic of interest, spend a little time researching it, have a discussion then publish the notes.

Why The main benefits are the fostering of a greater understanding of the world before we die and hopefully, to prompt further thought and discussion from our listeners.

The topic we will be tackling in this show will be Climate Change

Topic Overview

It is a hostile universe. The near vacuum of space separates us by 25 trillion miles from our nearest star. In the 3.8 billion years of life on our planet, only 24 individuals (all human) have travelled beyond low earth orbit. It is safe to say, this world is all we know--It has provided everything we have needed to evolve and survive for aeons. It is however, a cooling rock prone to core and surface changes. Catastrophes have been known to happen. Armed with scientific methodology, we are now confirming our suspicion that it is human activity driving up global temperatures. Can anything be done? Is it too late? Or is it a tissue of lies spun by vested interests and the media?

Off Topic

(What we’re not talking about.)

Magnetically Levitated Flywheel Energy Storage Systems

Talking Points

What is climate change?

From the OED: climate change n. an alteration in the regional or global climate; esp. the change in global climate patterns increasingly apparent from the mid to late 20th cent. onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels; cf. global warming

Sceptics & Deniers

Sceptics want better science, a better understanding of the science and are dubious of the influence of vested interests

Deniers are typically immovable on particular aspects of the argument. They will deny there is warming, grant warming but attribute it to cycles, grant humans have something to do with it but maintain there’s nothing that can be done or the effects are negligible.

What motivates them?

What is the denier psychology? We may not have the wiring or cultural background to understand the scale of the disaster we’re facing. Denial will come on many forms including: outright rejection, suppression (ignoring the problem - innerism), blame, religious fatalism.

Two key conclusions from this report, which fall in line with previous studies:

Human influence on the climate system is clear, and recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest in history. Recent climate changes have had widespread impacts on human and natural systems.

Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, and sea level has risen

Cause of climate change:Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions have increased since the pre-industrial era, driven largely by economic and population growth, and are now higher than ever. This has led to atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide that are unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years. Their effects, together with those of other anthropogenic drivers, have been detected throughout the climate system and are extremely likely to have been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.

Few people read scientific papers. The media has a strong influence on the public perception of climate change matters.

BBC report on balance as bias (Guardian) led by Steve Jones: ‘He said: "This goes to the heart of science reporting – you wouldn't have a homeopath speaking alongside a brain surgeon for balance, as that would be absurd. It's just as absurd to have a climate sceptic for balance against the work of the overwhelming majority of climate scientists.”’ - Guardian

Morality

We are harming future generations, victims and perpetrators. cf Holocaust and the Jewish refusal to believe it was happening

Bystander effect: the larger the group, the less likely individuals take action to intervene in a crime

Solutions

Nuclear power

Reduced consumption

Jargon

Warming Gradual increase in mean temperature over at least a century

Cooling The science was always shaky

Wrap Up

Details about site, contacts, next show

Outro music choice - something open source or out of copyright so we don’t get sued

Earth versus the world by The Polish Ambassador, purveyors of fine glitch and trip-hop from the Free Music Archive (Free to use for non-commercial purposes)